


From the Heart

by WhatBecomesOfYou



Category: The Fosters (TV 2013)
Genre: Christmas, Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-03 09:08:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2845604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhatBecomesOfYou/pseuds/WhatBecomesOfYou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While Christmas shopping, Callie overhears a conversation that makes her change her holiday plans to involve some people from her past.</p>
            </blockquote>





	From the Heart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [chicleeblair](https://archiveofourown.org/users/chicleeblair/gifts).



Callie stood in line at the drugstore. Holiday music tinkled through the air – right now, it was a piano version of Jingle Bells - and the cashier was wearing a festive Santa hat as she scanned people’s items. In a week, it would be Christmas, and it was certainly beginning to feel a lot like it. Despite, yeah, the fact that it was 65 and not exactly “sleigh ride together with you” weather.

She clutched her basket of cold medicine and glittery Christmas garlands closer to her, and waited as the cashier checked out the lady in front of her. “Oh, this is a really good deal on these chocolates here,” the cashier said. “Someone in your life is getting treated very well this Christmas.”

“Yeah, they’re not for me, even though I love them,” the lady said. “One of my students just got sent to a group home, and I don’t know what kind of Christmas he’s going to get to have there. But he loves to eat, so I figured I’d send him some chocolate. Can’t hurt, can it?”

“Not at all,” the cashier agreed.

She had to bite her tongue not to reply with every thought that ran through her head. It was hard to accept that her life had changed considerably, and for the better, in the interim between her time in the foster system and now. Dueling thoughts crossed through her mind – in the exact same moment, she wanted to praise the woman for her kindness, and rebuke her charity because no one should have to subside on what other people provided.

“Actually, that sounds really nice,” she said. “Sorry, I couldn’t help but overhear.”

“Oh, that’s okay, sweetie,” the lady said. “I’m just trying to do my part, because he doesn’t come from a good home, and now that everything is changing for him, I want to make sure he knows someone cares.”

Okay, on the sliding scale of how she wanted to react to the woman, it had slid to “praise,” but she still refrained from saying a word. She was a different person now than she was even five years ago, and she wanted it to stay that way.

She paid for her purchases and was on her way in short order, paying with some of the money she had earned as a photographer. She was a functioning member of society now. Her past was just that: the past.

~

Later that night, she spooned her pasta from the boiling pot and onto a chipped orange plate she had rescued from the back of a Goodwill in San Ysidro.

For some reason, the interaction she’d had at the drugstore stuck in the back of her mind as she ate her dinner. She hadn’t given a lot of thought to her past in a while. Taking pictures, developing pictures, selling her pictures – those were the things that revitalized her and gave her strength in these days. Some might say that she was a workaholic, to which she’d say, “it’s a job, and it pays well (enough), and it’s one that I like, so.” And she’d smile and flip her hair back over her shoulder, and things would go back to normal.

She knew what it was like to go without. She knew the feeling all too well. It was an ache in her stomach that never quite went away, no matter how good things were these days.

“I wonder what Girls United is up to,” she said, as she pulled up her laptop to do an internet search. A flurry of keystrokes later, and she found herself looking at a small online photo gallery of Rita and a motley crew of about six girls standing in front of a statue downtown. She zoomed in on Rita. Time had definitely advanced since the last time she’d seen her, but she could tell that it was the same woman. Kind and caring, but firm as an iron rod. There were a few more gray hairs on her head, and she wondered if she had ever been the cause of any of them. But she wore a smile, and that smile spoke volumes more than any words could have said.

She picked up her cell phone and dialed. “Hey, Stef? It’s Callie. Listen, I have an idea about Christmas this year…”

~

“Hi, Callie!” Stef’s voice rang out, as she and Lena, along with Jude, walked up the sidewalk toward her. Behind them was a veritable conglomeration of everything tasty and also everything practical, wrapped up in bows and sparkly paper, ready to distribute to each girl. “We managed to pull it off, I think?”

“You got everything?”

Stef glanced at the miniature field of pyramids behind her and chuckled. “We do. By God, if we don’t, I think we bought out every store in our neighborhood, so we gave it our best try.”

The house that Robert’s fundraiser had bought them a few years back was nicer than the one she knew best for them, but it was still modest, tucked on a cul-de-sac, in the stucco Spanish-inspired patterns of so many of the neighborhoods around them. Their neighbor had a swingset sticking up from the backyard, and a nice-but-not-too-nice car sat outside their other neighbor’s house. It was positively suburban and banal – but normal, and therefore, perfect for the people who needed it most.

Callie hugged Jude close to her. “You’ve grown since the last time I saw you,” she said, lightly teasing him as she ruffled his hair. Even though he was now a little taller than her, she couldn’t resist. “And is that a new shade?”

He ducked his head to hers. “You noticed.” His nails splayed out against her arm, painted in a deep rosy berry.

“Of course, I’m your sister. I’m always going to notice.” She grabbed her camera, and took Jude by the hand, “now, let’s go surprise Rita and the girls!”

The path to the door felt incredibly long and also impossibly short at the same time, but before she knew it, she was standing before the door and knocking. She had the camera at the ready, to catch Rita’s reaction. The simple candidness of the shot would be poetry in motion, stark beauty.

“Hi,” Callie said, to the girl who answered the door. She recognized her from the website picture, a tiny redhead with a scowl etched across her face, “I – could I see Rita, please?”

“Sure, whatever,” the girl said, “yo, Rita, check the door!”

“Remember your manners, Hailey,” Rita said, as she bustled toward the door. “It’s rude - oh – Callie! It’s such a nice surprise to see you.” She threw her arms around Callie and embraced her. “Hailey, this is Callie, and she was one of you a few years ago.”

“Yeah, and so? That makes her cool?”

“She’s one of the success stories of this place,” Rita said. She beamed and motioned to Callie. “What brings you by today, though? I thought you’d be with your family, with it being Christmas.”

“I am.” A second car pulled up, and the remainder of her foster siblings came tumbling out, Jesus and Brandon and Mariana, all carrying various trappings. “I know that I’ve always been split between my foster family and you, so I’m giving back to you. Without you – without them – without all of you, I wouldn’t be who I am now. A ‘success story’ as you put it.”

Rita’s face lit up as the realization dawned on her of what Callie had orchestrated. “You – oh my God, Callie, you didn’t have to do this, not at all.” Callie’s camera clicked away merrily.

“This is for you, this is for the girls, and this is for all of you. To thank you. For everything.” She felt tears welling up in her eyes, and she brushed frantically away at her face, to hide the tears. “Please, let’s go eat. There’s gifts for everyone.”

“You are a true star, Callie.”

As she walked into the house, her heart swelled. This was where she belonged.

Maybe in the new year, she could do some work with Girls United. Those pictures she had taken of the girls back in the day had worked wonders, maybe she could do something more with it.

Because every one of these girls deserved a second chance. She got one, and they should too.


End file.
